Maco V 5/8 Antenna Review

Choosing a base station antenna isn't easy. You have
multiple styles to choose from (beam, omni-directional, wire) and
materials (fiberglass, aluminum) as well as mounting possibilities (mast,
tower, tripod, roof). Generally speaking the most popular base antennas in
the CB world are the vertical omni-directional antennas. They rank # 1
because they are easy to install, they don't usually take up as much room
as larger beam (yagi) style antennas, and they are inexpensive.

The Maco V 5/8 is an
omni-directional vertical ground
plane antenna made of aircraft alloy 6063-T5 aluminum tubing with .050"
wall thickness. The antennas are manufactured here in the USA. The ground plane
style of vertical antennas utilize radials that extend out from the base
of the assembly to help lower the angle of radiation. These types of
antennas have proven very effective for talking both locally and long
distances.

There is a large amount of discussion online about
the benefits of ground plane radials versus antennas that don't use them,
such as the Solarcon Imax 2000 or use other configurations like the Sirio
Vector 4000. These comparisons are quite subjective and involve a lot of
antenna theory so for this review we've decided to focus on the install,
tuning, specifications, and general performance of this antenna without
getting involved in the heated debate over which antenna is best.

THE BOX

The Maco V 5/8 antenna will come packaged in a 74.5”
long cardboard box along with some packing peanuts. The antenna is
completely disassembled when you receive it so be prepared to set aside
some time for assembly and tuning.

As you can see in the pictures the antenna consists
of multiple sections of aluminum tubing of various diameters that slide
into each other and are held in place with the included hardware.

You’ll also notice two “C” shaped pieces which when
assembled will become a special tuning ring section at the base of the
antenna. The new base antenna owner may be a little intimidated
by all the parts and having to assemble the antenna themselves, but
there’s no need for concern as the parts go together very simply and most
of the process is very straightforward.

ASSEMBLY

Some of the tubing pieces for the Maco V 5/8 have
special slits cut into the ends. For assembly you slide the smaller pieces
of tubing into these pieces and use your hardware connector pieces to
tighten around the slitted sections. As you tighten the connector pieces
(ring, with screw, nut) they compress the slitted sections of the tubing
and tighten down, completing the connection between the two pieces of
aluminum.

Some of the sections use hose clamps to secure two
pieces of tubing together and these are used mostly in the vertical
sections.

Once you’ve completed sliding most of your tubing
pieces together you’re ready to tackle the ring system. The two “C” pieces
are attached together with screws at two locations on the antenna to
create a slight corkscrew effect.

As you can see from the picture the top part of the
ring is attached to a metal bar that angles down at about a 45 degree
angle and is attached to the antenna with a clamp. The bottom section
screws onto the coax connector bracket, which is an L shaped piece of metal
that is bolted directly to the antenna. Installing this part of the
antenna is probably the most difficult part as it require more specific
measurement and adjustment. These pieces are smaller and so use care not
to bend or break the aluminum.

The final step in this assembly is attaching the wire
from the center of the coax connector to the ring using a small P clamp.

The ground plane radials for this antenna are
attached to a ring that has four protrusions which they slide on to. This
ring is connected to the main base section of the antenna with a bolt.

Once your antenna is assembled it can be mounted
directly onto your mast section. The mast will slide into the bottom
tubing of the antenna and is secured with a metal ring/bolt.

Fully assembled, the antenna and setup for 27 MHZ the
antenna should be 248" (20.5 feet) in height. You will need a good large
section of space when assembling to ensure you don’t accidentally bend any
of the radials or damage the antenna.

INSTALL AND TUNING

Now that the antenna is assembled you’ll need to tune
the antenna for the best SWR for the frequencies you intend to talk on
(the antenna can be setup for 10 meters, but
we’ll focus on 11 meter tuning here). For tuning, the antenna ideally
should be at its operating height but for most people it’s not reasonable
to try to tune an antenna or make changes while it mounted 40 feet in the
air on your tower or mast, so you’ll want to do most of the tuning before
installation.

This
poses a bit of a problem as you need to get the antenna in the air
somewhat otherwise your tuning readings won’t be accurate. To overcome
this issue I usually pull out two pieces of fence tubing I keep
around. Both sections are 6 feet long and they are top rails that fit
together. I have another piece of 6 foot plumbing pipe that I’ve pounded
into the ground about 3’ and I slide the 6’ top rail fence tubing over
this. I then attach the antenna to the other 6 foot section and connect
the two sections together. The end result is a 12 foot mast which is high
enough for testing/tuning and if I need to make changes I can easily drop
the top section down and adjust the antenna and then put it back up again.

Adjusting the SWR on this antenna can be accomplished
in two ways. You can adjust the physical length of the antenna by sliding
the tubing that goes into the bottom section up or down. The other
method is to adjust the location where the center conductor wire attaches
to the ring. For my antenna I found that I only needed minor adjustments for SWR and the most noticeable changes in tuning were done by changing the
location of the conductor wire on the ring.

After about 1 hour of assembly and 10 minutes of
tuning I had finished up with SWR readings of 1.3 on channel 1, 1.1 on
channel 20 and 1.15 on channel 40 (these readings are at the 12’ height
prior to install). I did notice that this particular antenna once
assembled and tuned for 11 meters isn't super broad banded, so if you set
the length for 11 meters and plan to talk on 10 meters an antenna tuner
might be recommended.

I did one last check and tightened all my fittings,
connected my Davis RF Bury Flex coax and mounted the antenna on some
temporary masting in the back yard. Height to the bottom of the antenna
was around 30’ and with the 20' length of the antenna the tip was around
50'.

.

PERFORMANCE

I installed the antenna over the weekend, but I
didn’t have any DX to listen to and I couldn’t raise the locals so all we
had for the first two days to listen to was static. This actually
presented an interesting scenario as many people have made comments on
forums that after installing an aluminum antenna and comparing it to a
previous fiberglass antenna that the Maco’s tend to have a lower noise
level.

I have my other two antennas (Imax 2000 and homemade
¼ ground plane) on an antenna switch so I added the Maco V 5/8 to the
three way switch to compare the static noise. For the most part all three
antennas were very similar in terms of static noise, but I did find that on certain channels where I had a
higher static level due to electrical hum in the background that the Maco
didn’t seem to hear this electrical noise as much as the other two
antennas, making it quieter on those channels.

I suspect that because I live in a farming community
with very little electrical noise and basically no above ground power
lines that I won’t see as much of a difference as someone who lives
in a larger city with more electrical interference. Based on my simple
test and the many comments I’ve seen online I would tend to believe the
claims that this antenna may offer a small reduction in electrical noise
over fiberglass antennas like the A99 or Imax 2000 in places where that type of noise is more prevalent.

Later in the week I was able to talk to my local test station
in the area and did some AM and SSB tests. The Maco V 5/8 performed very
well putting a 3-5 S unit signal on SSB to the station 35 miles away. The
transmitted signal was strong enough that the receiving station was even
able to hear me when he switched from his vertical antenna to his beam
antenna. He told me that usually when stations in my town try to talk to
him using a vertical and he is on the beam he can’t hear them at all, so
he was impressed with the performance of the antenna.

Next I got a chance to talk some DX with the Maco V
5/8, and while DX conditions aren’t the best measure of an antenna since
the level of skip can vary from day to day, I was able to see how well I
was able to make contacts in different areas of the country and how well
my station was able to compete with all the other stations trying to make
contacts.

The results were excellent. One minute I was able to
contact Tennessee and South Carolina, the next I made a contact into South
Dakota and minutes later I was talking into California. I had no problems
getting stations to respond and I had many reports that my station signal was strong.

For receive comparisons I decided to test the Imax
2000 and Maco V 5/8 and see if there was any discernable difference in
signal strength on receive. I did some tests for local stations and DX
stations and after days of testing I came to the conclusion that at the
same heights, using the same coax, testing with the same stations, the
Maco regularly had a 0.25 S unit higher receive reading than the Imax
2000. Now since every antenna install is different and so many factors are
at play this result could differ for someone else doing the same test, but
I think generally speaking most people will find the Maco will very
slightly outperform the Imax 2000 for receive by around ¼ S unit.

While there is no standard for S units the generally
accepted principle is that an S unit is equal to around 6db. Which would give the Maco
a 1.5 db gain advantage over the Imax 2000 for receive in my testing.

Beyond the on-air performance I found the physical
construction of the antenna impressive and almost immediately after
installing it we experienced 50 mph gusts during a storm. The antenna
handled the wind without difficulty and it seemed like the construction of the antenna would be
adequate to survive most storms people will encounter.

The one weak point in the antenna might be the ring
tuning section. While it is built out of aluminum and handled the wind
without any problems, a stray falling branch or limb could damage the
thinner pieces of the ring section much easier than other parts of the
antenna. While the chances of this happening are probably very slim, it’s
just something to note.

SUMMARY

The Maco V 5/8 Ground Plane antenna is a well built
aluminum antenna that offers very good performance characteristics. It’s
advertised online anywhere from $99 to $129, which is very reasonable for a
20’ aluminum antenna (the other day I tried to buy a 6’ piece of aluminum
at my hardware store for an antenna project and they wanted $29 for the
single length).

While the debate of which CB vertical antenna is best
will continue for years to come we do know that ground plane antennas work
very well and lower the angle of radiation to prevent the loss of signal
skyward.

Now there is some competition in the ground plane
market and antennas like the interceptor I10K have proven themselves as
great performers, but they also are much more expensive ($339 + shipping).
For most people the Maco V 5/8 antenna is going to offer more bang for
your buck, while antennas such as the I10K generally appeal to the more
serious CB’ers or people needing an antenna to handle 100 MPH winds and
10,000 watts of output (the Maco V 5/8 is rated up to 1,200 watts - for
those needing higher power capacity in the Maco line there is the Maco V 5000
rated to 5,000 watts and priced online around $149.95).

One downside to aluminum antennas such as the Maco V
5/8 is the assembly. It does take at least an hour for most people to put
the antennas together, and initially getting the antenna into position for
testing can be a bit tricky without damaging the long ground plane
radials. Some radio operators may find a non-ground plane antenna easier
to assemble and mount, but with 1,000’s of these antennas sold and being
using I think most people have no issues putting them together.

After testing out two different Maco antennas in the
last couple of months I can say that the Maco brand of antennas came well packaged,
used solid materials, and the
instructions were well written and explained each step in assembly.

In contacting Maco I found their staff to be easy to
reach by phone or email and very helpful in answering my questions. In
this day and age where many CB products are made by companies overseas and
distributed multiple times before reaching the market I find it refreshing
to be able to call a company and within minutes be talking to the owner
about antenna designs.

The Maco V 5/8 has been a very popular CB antenna and
it’s likely someone in your area is already using one. If you’re putting
up your first base antenna, or you’ve decided to upgrade from a shorter
antenna such as the A99, you won’t be disappointed with the Maco V 5/8.

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